Speaking Truth To Power

Twenty years ago, a very clever academic called Richard Klein published a book called Cigarettes Are Sublime, a 250-page reflection on the idea that danger and risk make us live more intensely.

Now a chap called Rob Lyon has put it more succinctly in an article for Spiked. Before going on to argue for vaping, in about four or five paragraphs he explained that most smokers smoke because they like smoking – despite the dangers – and that many actually identify as ‘smokers’. (That is, without the odd gasper, they feel less themselves.) To them, the health police are literally mounting a personal attack.

Lyon pegged his piece to the failure of New Year’s resolutions. One hopes that the anti-smoking lobby will lose some of its own resolve as 2017 ticks on.